Postmodernism and History of Modern Historiography - Book Report/Review Example

Revolution in writing history has consequently changed the genealogy of traditional cultures and resulted in present study topics. It is vital that revolution in interpreting the discipline has led to doubts over the existence of factual history.

Summary of Global History of Modern Historiography-Chapter 6 (Pgs. 281-306)
Chapter 6 of the book entails a discussion of postmodernism and linguistic turn, development of contemporary historiography in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America history, subaltern studies, and post-colonialism. The authors of the book relate the aforementioned discussion topics to current historical challenges in the post-war period. The authors use concepts of post-colonialism and postmodernism in discussing modernism in historical writing. Postcolonialism led to a revolution in non-western countries' systems including education, politics, and culture.

Africa, for example, experienced the postmodernism era when they adopted western culture after the attainment of independence. Subaltern studies remained imperative in explaining the historical effects of post-colonialism and war on both East and western countries. For instance, subaltern studies elucidated the dominance of Indian historiography. The authors also compare historiography emergence periods in different continents and factors that influenced its revolution. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa historiography started towards the end of the colonial period after that of India had begun. Historiography in Africa faced various challenges including racism. It is essential that the language had a fundamental role in historical writing, and it influenced the postmodern era.

Summary of John Edward Philips-Chapter 1
Chapter one of the book elaborates the meaning of history, how to write it, its relation to social sciences, and the differences between history and other disciplines. Moreover, the chapter develops potential factors that make history a real discipline and misconceptions about the fascinating subject. In explaining the definition and relation of history to other disciplines, the chapter focuses on African history. The book explains misconceptions that history is explicitly about society winners such as wars. Philips discusses that history entails an account of events recorded by winners, losers, and witnesses. It is imperative that historians have a significant role in creating and making coherent interpretations of the past based on present evidence .

History forms the central source of information for all disciplines including social sciences. Accounts of history make up theories and facts discussed in various disciplines such as science. It is imperative that historians conduct proper research to help enrich history as a source of information.

Summary of Postmodernism for Historians by Callum Brown
The book discusses postmodernism theory in relation to contemporary history research and applications. According to Brown, 2005 postmodernism has impacted positively on the development of history as a subject and other disciplines such as Journalism. Historians should embrace postmodernism theory in the research and teaching of history. Postmodern theory is imperative in modern history based on its seven main significant themes which include empiricist inheritance, sign, discourse, text, self, morality, and post-structuralism. The aforementioned themes explain the development of postmodernism and how historians use it in research and teaching unknowingly though they doubt its importance. Despite adverse critics by scholars on the relevance of postmodernism, the theory has vast influential applications in social research and teaching history as a discipline. Moreover, postmodernism has widened history by introducing new disciplines including popular culture, gay history, women's history, and postcolonial history.

Part 2
Two Discussion Questions in relation to Subject

Question 1
Has postmodernism led to the emergence of fiction in history?

Question 2
How important was linguistic diversity in the development of modern history?

Need to clarify the questions
Question 1 seeks to establish if the contemporary interpretation of ancient events has resulted in non-factual history and research. The question aims at eliminating misconceptions about historical development. Question 2 would address the relevance of languages in understanding modern history. Languages remained imperative in the historical writing of events from diverse cultures. Read More